1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to refrigerators, and more particularly, to a refrigerator in which a refrigerating chamber door which opens/closes a refrigerating chamber on an upper side thereof is provided with an ice maker and a dispenser.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As known, a refrigerator, an appliance for storing food at a low temperature, stores food at a frozen state or a cold state depending on kinds of food. Cold air for the refrigerator is produced by repetitive performance of a refrigerating cycle of compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation of the refrigerant, and the cold air is supplied to the refrigerator continuously. The cold air supplied to respective chambers of the refrigerator thus is delivered throughout an inside of the refrigerator uniformly by convection to cool down the chambers to predetermined temperatures respectively, so that food can be stored in the refrigerator at desired temperatures.
FIG. 1 illustrates a front view of a related art refrigerator with doors thereon opened.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is a refrigerator body 10 of a substantially hexahedral shape. There is an inside of the body 10 partitioned into a refrigerating chamber 20 for low temperature storage of food, and a freezing chamber 30 for frozen storage of food on an upper side and a lower side thereof, respectively. The refrigerating chamber 20 and the freezing chamber 30 have opened fronts, respectively. The fronts are opened/closed with refrigerating chamber doors 40, and a freezing chamber door 50.
The refrigerating chamber doors 40 are located at both a left side and a right side of the refrigerating chamber with edges thereof each rotatably hinged at the body 10 with hinge brackets 42. Accordingly, the user can rotate the refrigerating chamber doors 40 around the hinge brackets 42 in left/right directions, respectively, to open the front of the refrigerating chamber 20.
Though not shown, electric wires lead from the body 10 to an inside of one or both of the refrigerating chamber doors 40 through the hinge brackets 42, which is the only part that connects the refrigerating chamber doors 40 to the body 10. Accordingly, in one side of an upper part of one or both of the refrigerating chamber doors 40 there is a predetermined passage for placing the electric wires therein.
A variety of sizes and states of food are stored in the refrigerator. In order to store such food, in the refrigerating chamber 20, and on an inside the refrigerating chamber door 40, there are drawers, baskets, and shelves for holding various types of food.
On the lower side of the body 10, the freezing chamber door 50 slides in front/rear directions, to close the opened front of the freezing chamber 30. On an upper side of the freezing chamber door 50, there is a freezing chamber door handle 52 projected forward, for easy holding and moving the freezing chamber door by the user. In the freezing chamber 30, there are a plurality of drawers and baskets, for sorting and storing various kinds of food therein. Also, on one side of the freezing chamber 30, there is an ice maker 60 for production of ice.
The mounting of the ice maker 60 in the freezing chamber 30 on the lower side of the body 10 causes an inconvenience in use of the refrigerator in that the user must open the freezing chamber door 50 and bend over to take out the ice.
In order to resolve such a problem, a refrigerator is under study, in which the ice maker 60 is mounted to the refrigerating chamber 20 or the refrigerating chamber door 40, and an ice bank (not shown) which stores ice is mounted to the refrigerating chamber door 40 at a position opposite to the ice maker 60. However, if an ice maker 60 and the ice bank are mounted on the refrigerating chamber door 40, a separate evaporator and a cold air fan are required to supply cold air to the ice maker. Consequently, a number of extra components and working man-hours are required to make such a refrigerator, which results in poor productivity and a high production cost. Moreover, the mounting of additional components reduces a storage space of the refrigerating chamber 20 or the refrigerating chamber door 40.
If a plurality of electric devices and components, such as the ice maker 60, the ice bank, the dispenser (not shown), a display (not shown), and the like are provided to the refrigerating chamber door 40, it is necessary for a plurality of electric wires to be connected from a main PCB (not shown) in the body 10 to the electric components in the door. Because the plurality of electric wires that lead from a main PCB (not shown) can only be introduced into the refrigerating chamber door 40 through a predetermined space provided in the hinge bracket 42, which is the only part that connects the refrigerating chamber door 40 to the body 10, a size of the space for the wires is restricted by a size of the hinge bracket. Moreover, because the plurality of electric wires that are introduced into the refrigerating chamber door 40 must be connected to various electric components, the connection of the electric wires to the various electric components in the refrigerating chamber door 40 can be very difficult, with a poor workability.